1

DEADLY POWDER
MATHIEU ORFILA, JAMES MARSH,
AND DETECTION OF POISONS

oison is everywhere. Many plants contain poisons, for example.

Most household products and even medicines can be poisonous.
As an early chemist who called himself Paracelsus stated in the 16th
century, All substances are poisons. . . . The right dose [makes the
difference between] a poison and a remedy.
Until the 19th century, most poisons were undetectable as well as
common, which meant that poisoners usually escaped punishment.
Family members or neighbors might be suspect if an unloved wife
or husband or a rich parent died suddenly, but no one could prove
that such a person had been poisoned. As a result, historians say,
poisoning was widespread in some places and times, such as in Italy
and France in the late 1600s.
The most popular poison, contemporary accounts claim, was
arsenic. The human body needs tiny amounts of this metallic element, but arsenic is poisonous in most doses. Arsenic was most
commonly found in the form of arsenic oxide, a white powder that
had respectable uses ranging from improving the complexion to poisoning rats. Because white arsenic, as the powder was called, was
odorless and tasteless as well as easy to buy, however, some people
applied it to less legitimate purposes. Secretly mixed into food, the
powder caused stomach pains, vomiting, diarrhea, and other signs of
illness just like the symptoms of cholera and several other common,
deadly diseases. Only a minute dose of arsenic (about 0.009 ounce,
or 0.25 g) was needed to kill a person. White arsenic was supposedly
1

2 Forensic Science

used so often to poison rich relatives in late 17th-century France

that it was nicknamed inheritance
powder.
The reign of inheritance powder came to an end around 1840,
thanks largely to two men: British
chemist James Marsh, who developed a sensitive test for arsenic
in human tissue, and Mathieu
Orfila, a Spanish-born scientist
working in France who almost
single-handedly founded the science of toxicology. Toxicology is
Spanish-born Mathieu Orfila,
the study of poisons and their
working in France, founded the
effects, including not only obviscience of toxicology by writing
ous poisons such as arsenic but
an exhaustive book on poisons in
1813. (National Library of Medicine,
also drugs (legal or illegal) and
photo B020198)
industrial chemicals. Identifying
poisons and determining whether
they were taken accidentally or purposefully for suicide or murder
is a vital part of forensic science.

Founding a Science
Mathieu-Joseph-Bonaventure Orfila (known also as Mateu
[Mathieu] Josep[h] Bonaventura Orfila i Rotger) was born on April
24, 1787, in Mahn, a town on Minorca, a small island off the coast
of Spain. Orfilas early education came from local priests and the
library of his merchant father. A child genius, Orfila could speak
five languages by the time he was 14 years old.
Orfila initially planned to become a sailor, but he found his first
sea journey (at age 15) boring and uncomfortable, and his interest
turned toward medicine. Impressing his teachers at each stage of his
training enough to obtain a scholarship to pay for the next stage,
he studied in Valencia, Barcelona, Madrid, and, finally, Paris. He
earned his medical degree in 1811.

DEADLY POWDER 3

Soon after his graduation, Orfila began giving private classes in

chemistry to earn money. These classes became very popular, but
Orfila sometimes had problems with his demonstrations. In April
1813, after he failed several times to show his students the precipitate (solid matter) that was supposed to form when arsenic acid was
mixed with various substancesa common test for arsenic at the
timehe decided to examine other standard tests for poisons in fluids such as soup, wine, and coffee. He found that most of the tests
were unreliable. Scientists could detect many poisons, he learned,
only by feeding suspect substances to animals and waiting to see
whether the animals died. The central fact that had struck me
had never been perceived by anyone else, he wrote later. My first
words were these: Toxicology does not yet exist.
Orfila set out to change that fact by writing the first scientific
book on the subject, Trait des poisons (Treatise on poisons). The
book divided poisons into several groups and described their
effects on the living body, the symptoms of illness they produce,
the signs they leave in a dead body, and the ways of identifying
them. The first volume of this exhaustive work appeared later
in 1813, the second volume in 1815. Its impact was immediate
and tremendous, Colin and Damon Wilson write in Written in
Blood: A History of Forensic Detection. Essentially, they say,
Orfila founded the science of toxicology with this book. Orfila
later wrote several other books and numerous papers on poisons,
medical chemistry, and medical jurisprudence, as forensic science
was then called.
Trait des poisons made Orfila famous, and he rose rapidly in
the academic world. He became professor of mental maladies in
the medical school of Paris, a post created just for him, in 1818.
A year later, he took over the medical schools professorship of
medical jurisprudence. He succeeded famous chemist Louis-Nicolas
Vauquelin, who had trained him, as professor of chemistry in 1823
and became dean of the medical school in 1830.
During these years, Orfila became one of the first scientists to
appear as an expert witness in trials. He testified in a court for the
first time in August 1824. The defendant in that trial was a woman
named Laurent, who had been charged with killing her husband
after a local physician said he found arsenic in the dead mans body.

4 Forensic Science

When Orfila retested the husbands stomach, however, he found no

poison, and the widow Laurent was acquitted.

A Sensitive Test
Mathieu Orfila was a brilliant chemist, but he was not the person
who created a sensitive, dependable test for arsenic, the substance
that had given him such trouble in his 1813 chemistry demonstration. That achievement came from a more obscure man, British
chemist James Marsh.
Marsh was born on September 2, 1794, but little is known of
his early life beyond this fact. He became a chemist at Londons
Woolwich Arsenal and the associated Royal Military Academy in
1822, working to improve military guns and cannons. From 1829
to 1846, he also assisted Michael Faraday, another employee of the
Royal Military Academy, who became famous for research on electricity and the discovery of the relationship between electricity and
magnetism.
Marsh did not have Orfilas reputation as an expert witness, but
in December 1832, Marsh was also called to testify at a poisoning
trial. A man named John Bodle had been arrested for murdering his
grandfather, George, by putting arsenic in the old mans coffee, and
the judge at Bodles trial asked Marsh to test George Bodles stomach for the poison because Marsh was the most qualified chemist in
the area. Marsh used a test that was supposed to produce a yellow
precipitate if arsenic was present. The precipitate appeared, but by
the time he showed it to the jury, the powder had broken down and
no longer showed an obvious color. The jury found the test unconvincing and acquitted Bodle.
Marsh, who believed that Bodle was guilty (a suspicion proved
correct 10 years later, when Bodle, then safely out of the country,
confessed to the crime), was frustrated that he had not had clearer
evidence to show the jury. He decided to invent a more dependable
and sensitive test for arsenic in the human body.
The best known of the tests for arsenic used at the time was the
arsenic mirror, which Johann Metzger, a medical professor in
Knigsberg (Kaliningrad), Germany, had invented in 1787. Metzger

DEADLY POWDER 5

showed that if a mixture containing arsenic was heated until it

turned red, a layer of black metallic arsenic would be deposited on
any nearby cold surface, such as a plate. Metzger called this layer
the arsenic mirror because it was shiny. Metzgers reaction by itself
could not detect arsenic in a body, but, in 1806, Valentine Rose, a
professor at the Berlin School of Medicine, developed a way to treat
a human stomach and its contents so that the mirror test could be
applied to them.

In James Marshs sensitive test for arsenic, the material to be tested was mixed
with zinc and sulfuric acid in the small flask at the left (1). If the sample contained arsenic, hydrogen from the acid combined with the arsenic to form
arsine gas. The gas passed into the horizontal tube (2). Near the end of the
tube, the gas was heated by a flame (3). The heat broke down the arsine and
released metallic arsenic, which formed a black, shiny deposit (called the arsenic mirror) at the end of the tube (4).

6 Forensic Science

Metzgers and Roses tests often failed to detect small amounts of

arsenic. In the most common form of the tests, arsenic in the material being tested was converted into a poisonous, garlicky-smelling
gas called arsine, a combination of arsenic and hydrogen, before
being heated. James Marsh realized that much of the arsine probably escaped into the air before it could drop its load of arsenic. If
only a small amount of arsenic was present in the test material, too
little might be left to form the arsenic mirror.
To end this difficulty, Marsh created a closed apparatus that kept
the gas confined. He combined the material being tested with zinc
and sulfuric acid in a flask that opened into a narrow, horizontal
tube. If the material contained arsenic, the arsenic would react with
hydrogen in the acid and produce arsine gas, which passed into the
tube. A flame beneath the tube heated the gas, making it break
down into hydrogen and metallic arsenic. When the arsenic reached
a cold part of the tube, it formed the characteristic black mirror.
Marshs test was so sensitive that it could detect 0.0000007 ounce
(.02 mg) of arsenic in a sample. He described his invention in The
Test for Arsenic, published in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal
in October 1836. The Society of Arts awarded him a gold medal
for his work. Marsh later improved the test to allow the amount of
arsenic in the sample to be measured by comparing the length of the
metallic arsenic deposit in the thin tube with the lengths of deposits
made by known amounts of arsenic. The tube containing the test
deposit could be sealed and later displayed to a jury as evidence.

Pretty Poisoner
Mathieu Orfilas expertise in toxicology and James Marshs new
test for arsenic came together in September 1840 during the trial
of Marie Lafarge, a figure in one of the most highly publicized
courtroom dramas of the day. Marie had been married to Charles
Lafarge, a master ironworker. She had had no say in her choice of
husband, and the marriage was not a happy one. Charles Lafarge
died on January 16, 1840, after suffering severe stomach problems
that began when he ate a piece of cake that his wife made for him.
Nine days after Charless death, 24-year-old Marie was arrested and
charged with his murder.

DEADLY POWDER 7

Suspicion about Charless illness began even before he died. A

maidservant who worked for the Lafarge family told Lafarges
mother and doctor that she had seen Marie putting white powder
into milk, soup, and eggnog that the young woman then fed to her
husband. When Charles Lafarge died, the family and the physician
told authorities about their suspicions.
The examining magistrate (a judge who performed some functions
of a detective) learned that Marie had bought white arsenic, supposedly for poisoning rats, a few days before Charles first became ill.
He ordered Charless body to be brought out of its grave and tested
for arsenic, and he told the police to arrest Marie. Her arrest made
headlines in the Paris newspapers because Marie, in addition to
being attractive, was related to members of Frances nobility, including the royal family.
Marie Lafarges trial began in the city of Tulle on September 3,
1840. Marie and her wealthy relatives insisted that she was innocent,
but the evidence against her appeared strong. Several local chemists
testified that they had found arsenic in the box from which the maid
had seen Marie take the white powder. Arsenic was also in the milk,
the eggnog, and Charles Lafarges vomit and stomach contents.
Marie Lafarges defense lawyer contacted Orfila, who by then
was considered Europes foremost expert on poisons. Orfila, unlike
most other chemists of the time, knew about the Marsh test for arsenic and had been using it for several years. After reading the Tulle
chemists report, Orfila complained that they had used older, less
reliable tests and had performed the tests so badly that the results
were worthless.
When the defense attorney read Orfilas comments in court, the
prosecutions lawyers offered to have the chemists apply the Marsh
test to the suspect materials as well. After doing so, the chemists
reported that the foods and the powder in the box still showed high
amounts of arsenic. The scientists admitted, however, that they
could not find clear evidence of arsenic in Charles Lafarges stomach
or other organs.
The trial judge finally asked Orfila himself to come to Tulle and
settle the issue. Orfila arrived on September 13 and, with the local
chemists watching, repeated the Marsh test on all the materials that
night. The next afternoon, he told the packed courthouse, I shall

8 Forensic Science

prove that there is arsenic in the

body of [Charles] Lefarge, and that
this arsenic cannot have found its
way there from the soil in which
Lafarges body had lain. (Two
years before, Orfila had shown
that arsenic exists naturally in the
soil of some cemeteries and can
seep into bodies that are carelessly
buried.) Orfila went on to state
that he had found arsenic not only
in Lafarges stomach but also in
numerous other parts of his body.
Marie Lafarge was found guilty of
murder on September 19 and senIn 1840, Mathieu Orfila was
tenced to life in prison.
an expert witness in the highly
The Lafarge affair was the first
publicized murder trial of Marie
Lafarge, shown here. Orfila used
major court case in which scientific
the Marsh test to show that the
tests and the testimony of expert
body of Lafarges husband conwitnesses played a key part. The
tained arsenic, and this evidence
trial made the Marsh test famous,
led to her conviction. (Rogerand chemists began demonstrating
Viollet, photo 7951-14)
it in lectures and even at parties.
The popularity of the Marsh test combined with changes in
European laws to make poisoning by arsenic much less common. In
1851, for example, Britain passed the Arsenic Act, which allowed
druggists to sell poisons, particularly arsenic, only to people whom
they knew personally. Individuals who bought poison also had to
sign a poison book as a record of their purchases. Arsenic oxide
sold as rat poison had to be colored with soot (coal dust) or indigo, a
dark blue dye, to keep the powder from being confused, accidentally
or otherwise, with sugar or flour.

A Legacy of Students
Some people questioned Mathieu Orfilas conclusions in the Marie
Lafarge case, but no criticism could damage his high reputation.

CONNECTIONS: WAS NAPOLON POISONED?

DEADLY POWDER 9

Napolon Bonaparte (17691821) ruled France as First Consul of

the French Republic (17991804) and then as Emperor Napolon I
(180414). After conquering large parts of Europe in a series of wars,
he was defeated at the Battle of the Nations, near Leipzig, Germany,
in 1813. He was forced to give up his throne and was exiled to the
island of Elba, but supporters helped him escape, and he briefly
regained control of France. The British defeated him decisively at the
Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815. This time, he was sent to St.
Helena, a volcanic island in the remote South Atlantic. He died there
on May 5, 1821.
Napolons body was given an autopsy, a medical examination
intended to determine the cause of his death. The physicians who
performed the autopsy concluded that the former emperor had died
of stomach cancer. In 1952, however, Sten Forshufvud, a Swedish
dentist with a strong interest in Napolons history, proposed that
some of the deposed rulers attendants, probably paid by people
who wanted to make sure that the exile did not make another try for
power, had slowly poisoned him with arsenic. Forshufvud said that
the symptoms of Napolons last illness could be explained just as
easily by arsenic poisoning as by cancer.
Arsenic is known to accumulate in hair, and samples of Napolons
hair had been preserved. Forshufvud obtained one of these in
the 1960s and sent it to Hamilton Smith, a forensic toxicologist at
Glasgow University in Scotland. Using the neutron activation test,
an extremely sensitive test for arsenic that Smith himself had developed, the toxicologist found levels of arsenic in the hair that were
well above normal.
The fact that Napolons body contained arsenic does not prove
that he was poisoned deliberately, however. David Jones, a chemist
at the University of Newcastle, England, pointed out in 1980 that
the arsenic could have come from wallpaper in the house where
Napolon lived. A green dye often used in wallpaper at the time
contained an arsenic compound that could be dissolved by mold,
converting some of the arsenic to poisonous arsine gas. The gas
would not have been strong enough to kill the ex-emperor, but he
could have breathed in enough arsenic to make his other stomach
problems worse and hasten his death. Historians still disagree about
whether arsenic played a role in Napolons death and, if it did,
whether the poison was given to him on purpose or absorbed accidentally.

10 Forensic Science

Orfila received numerous honors and promotions during the decade

that followed the trial, even serving as King Louis XVIIIs personal
physician for a while. His rewards came to an end, however, when
France became a republic in 1848. Orfila died in Paris on March 12,
1853, after a short illness.
Orfila left behind not only his own considerable research but also
a group of former students who had become almost as famous in
forensic toxicology as he was. For instance, Alfred Swaine Taylor,
who had studied under Orfila in Paris, was professor of medical
jurisprudence at Guys Hospital medical school in London. Taylor
published Principles and Practice of Medical Jurisprudence, the
fields first textbook in English, in 1836, the same year that James
Marsh developed his arsenic test.
Jean-Servais Stas, another former student of Orfilas, became
a professor of chemistry at the royal military school in Brussels,
Belgium, and solved a problem that Orfila himself had thought hopeless: the detection of plant-based poisons, including narcotics such as
opium (from the opium poppy) and alkaloids such as belladonna, or
atropine (from the deadly nightshade plant). These natural substances break down in the body very quickly, seemingly leaving no trace.
In a famous Belgian trial in 1850, Stas demonstrated the presence
of nicotine, a powerful alkaloid poison from tobacco plants, in the
body of Gustave Fougnies, a wealthy man who had died suddenly.
After repeated purification of Fougniess stomach contents, Stas
mixed the remaining extract with liquid ether, into which the poison dissolved. Ether weighs less than water, so the ether formed a
layer above the water in the test liquid, carrying the poison with it.
Stas poured the ether into a separate dish and let it evaporate. What
remained was an oily, colorless liquid that smelled strongly of tobacco. Stas used accepted chemical tests to demonstrate that the liquid
was nicotine. The trial revealed that Fougniess sister and her husband, Count Hyppolyte de Bocarm, had extracted the poison from
tobacco plants and poured it down Fougniess throat. Toxicologists
adapted Stass procedure to reveal other deadly alkaloids.
Unlike Mathieu Orfila, James Marsh received little recognition for
his work. Marsh died on June 21, 1846, leaving a widow, two children, and no money. The British government gave the widow a small
yearly income in honor of her husbands contributions to science.

DEADLY POWDER 11

Modern Poison Detection

In the early 20th century, the Marsh test was refined to the point
that it could detect as little as 0.0000000007 ounce (1 g, or 1
millionth of a gram) of arsenic in body tissue. This and other 19thcentury tests for poison were eventually replaced by more advanced
technologies. Many of these new methods have the advantage of not
destroying the sample, as older chemical tests such as the Marsh test
did. They can also detect tiny amounts of poison and work with very
small samples. Todays forensic toxicologists can look for poison not
only in stomach contents but also in blood, urine, hair, or almost
any other material from the body.
One of the most popular tests for poisoning uses a combination
of two technologies, gas chromatography and mass spectrometry.
Chromatography separates the substances in a mixture. In gas chromatography, the mixture is vaporized, or turned into gas, and then
sent through a coiled glass tube. The mass spectrometer bombards
the gas with electrons, breaking them into electrically charged fragments with different masses (weight). A computer program determines the masses automatically and produces a readout that shows
what chemicals the mixture contained and in what proportions.
No doubt at least partly because of toxicologists success in identifying poisons, poisoning has become a relatively rare way to commit
murder. The FBI has stated that out of 14,121 homicides in 2004,
only 11 were the result of poisoning. However, Robert Middleberg
of National Medical Services, an independent toxicology laboratory,
told Court TV writer Katherine Ramsland that he suspects that the
number of poisonings is underestimated. Poisoners today must use
toxins more subtle than inheritance powder, but their race against
forensic toxicologists is sure to continue.

Chronology
1787

Mathieu-Joseph-Bonaventure Orfila born in Mahn, Minorca,

Spain, on April 24
Johann Metzger invents arsenic mirror test for arsenic

12 Forensic Science

1794

James Marsh born in Britain on September 2

1806

Valentine Rose invents method for applying arsenic mirror

test to human stomach contents

1811

Orfila earns medical degree in Paris

1813

After a failed demonstration of a test for arsenic, Orfila

begins studying poisons and methods for identifying them;
later in the year, he publishes first volume of his Trait des
poisons (Treatise on Poisons)

1815

Second volume of Trait des poisons published

1818

Orfila becomes professor of mental maladies at Paris medical

school

1819

Orfila becomes professor of medical jurisprudence

1822

Marsh becomes chemist at Woolwich Arsenal and Royal

Military Academy in London

1823

Orfila becomes professor of chemistry at the medical school

1824

In August, Orfila testifies as an expert witness in a trial for

the first time

182946

Marsh assists Michael Faraday

1830

Orfila becomes dean of the medical school

1832

Marsh testifies in the John Bodle trial in December; the jury

rejects his evidence

1836

In October, Marsh publishes a description of his new test for

arsenic in Edinburgh Philosophical Journal
Alfred Swaine Taylor, a former student of Orfilas, publishes
Principles and Practice of Medical Jurisprudence, the first
forensic medicine textbook in English

1840

In September, Orfila uses Marsh test to prove the guilt of

Marie Lafarge in a highly publicized poisoning trial

1840s

Orfila receives honors and promotions and serves as King

Louis XVIIIs personal physician

DEADLY POWDER 13

1846

Marsh dies on June 21

1848

France becomes a republic; Orfilas loses influence

1850

Jean-Servais Stas, another former student of Orfilas, detects

an alkaloid (nicotine) in stomach contents for the first time

1851

Britain passes Arsenic Act

1853

Orfila dies in Paris on March 12 after a short illness

Further Reading
Books
Orfila, Mathieu. Trait des poisons. 2 vols. Paris: Chez Crochard,
1813, 1815.
Orfilas work on poisons, their effects on the body, the symptoms
they cause, and the means of identifying them; this book essentially
established the field of toxicology.

Taylor, Alfred Swaine. Principles and Practice of Medical

Jurisprudence. London: publisher unknown, 1836.
First forensic medicine textbook in English, written by a former student of Orfila.

Wilson, Colin, and Damon Wilson. Written in Blood: A History of

Forensic Detection. New York: Carroll & Graf, reissue, 2003.
Contains an extensive chapter on poisoning and toxicology that
includes material on Mathieu Orfila and James Marsh.

Yeatts, Tabatha. Forensics: Solving the Crime. Minneapolis: Oliver

Press, 2001.
For young adults. Contains a chapter on James Marsh.

Articles
Cotton, Simon. Arsine. Available online. URL: http://www.chm.bris.
ac.uk/motm/arsine/arsineh.htm. Accessed on September 24, 2005.
Lively question-and-answer discussion of arsenic poisoning and the
chemistry of arsine gas, including references to Mathieu Orfila and
the Marsh test for arsenic.

14 Forensic Science

Marsh, James. The Test for Arsenic. Edinburgh Philosophical

Journal, October 1836.
Scientific article in which James Marsh described his new test for
arsenic.

Ramsland, Katherine. Forensic Toxicology. Available online.

URL: http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/forensics/toxicology. Accessed on September 22, 2005.
Series of 14 articles on forensic toxicology, part of Court TVs Crime
Library, that discusses both historical cases (including the Lafarge
case and the debate about whether Napolon Bonaparte was poisoned) and modern ones, as well as early and modern methods of
poison detection.